Blue tongue to top agenda at EFSA meeting

Blue tongue will be top of the agenda when NFU Vice President Paul Temple visits the European Food Standards Agency this week.

Blue tongue will be top of the agenda when National Farmers Union vice President Paul Temple visits the European Food Standards Agency this week. Genetically modified food and pesticides will also be discussed at the EFSA headquarters in Italy today.

The visit comes soon after EFSA published a key statement about food which has been produced by animals fed on genetically modified feed. Their research showed there was no DNA from GM feed in the final meat, milk and eggs products tested. The report, welcomed by the NFU, is the result of research called for following a petition on GM food labelling to the European Commission. It reinforces the current EU legal position.

Temple said: "We welcome this clear, unequivocal statement from EFSA. It gives us strong justification for our own policy on food labelling - products that do not contain any transgenic material from GM feed should not be labelled as GM, just because the process involved GMOs.

"Such labelling could be dangerous and misleading. Tests show DNA from GM plants fed to animals can not be detected so labelling could not be verified."